A couple of Jetbikes

Are this weeks work. So a lot slower in painting than I have been for the last couple of weeks.

So hopefully next up will be another bunch of Night Goblins. Then the third jetbike to finish off the minimum sized squad.

I was sort of enjoying painting these, however the green on the front was not looking too good. I managed to bring it back with some really thin coats of the midcoat I think.

I also found out about the green that I am using for my highlighting, in that it does not thin down really well with water alone. Have to put some matt medium in there to stop it going chalky and not smooth.

With the stuff that I am undercoating with, as it has some sort of super-sci-fi style auto levelling property, that I have to let this dry fully on its own and not try to hurry it along with the hair dryer. The hair drier still works great for helping to dry the thin layers of paint though.

All in all, a couple of models done, some lessons learnt and a good way to lead into the next week of painting.

Cheers.

Alas, only 11

I only got 11 models finished this week. But again, any progress is good progress. Possibly it could have been a little more progress, but I was a little distracted by Skyrim.

So the finished models this week is another 10 Night Goblins with Hand weapons

And the Farseer.

Pretty happy with the Farseer.

And a group shot of the Seer Council. I am pretty happy with them all up really.

Which also brings my total for the year to 71 models.

I am thinking of working on some more Eldar models next. I found some jetbikes, and from looking around they have not changed or been updated since I bought these in the old blue boxes. So they are still the current ones. Which is good. I did have to grab some of my spare flight stands, as I could not find the original ones that came with them. Although they may have been used on an ancient project to try and make some flying assault marines.

Anyway...

I will see how the week goes. I am hopeful of some more painting being done. Will it be the a large number? Will it be a few? Or only a partial completion week? Only time will tell.

Until next time.

Another good week

Ahh. As the title provides, I have had another good week of miniature painting. Another dozen models have been completed.

Which consist of another 10 Night Goblins for the unit of 100 with Hand Weapons. Bringing the unit now to 20 complete models.

And another two Warlocks.

I am very happy with the progress that I have been making lately. I seem to get into phases and currently I am in a painting phase. So I am trying to hit the painting as hard as I can while it lasts.

Next up I am hoping to complete the Farseet from the box set for the Eldar. That will be good, because it will mean that I will have completed one complete box of models.

I am still not sure what army to take to Arcanacon next year. As it is the 9th Golden Fez I am swinging back towards my Thousand Sons and not a new army. I am waiting to see if the points for Arc have been upgraded, or if it is 1200 still. There were some mutterings about them being raised, however I will wait until the player pack is released and see what it says.

And I realised that I had a math failure with my model count so far this year. 36 + 12 does not 50 make. Sigh. Instead it makes 48 for last week. Which is still Ok.

So 48 plus the 12 from this week though does make 60. So that is good. Above 50 without a math error and about a fifth of the models that I have purchased this year. Which sounds just as pathetic to me as it does to you. However onwards and upwards in the number of painted models. Hopefully neutrality will remain for a while with the numbers of models that I have purchased.

Not likely, as I have backed a kickstarter for some Dwarven Musketeers and Ogre's Cardinals Guard. But that is only 10 models so far. And has not made their funding goal yet, so I will see what happens with them.

Cheers until next time. To the Paintening!

Computer troubles...

Well, I was without a computer there for a little while. The graphics card on my Desktop stopped working, so I had to get a new one and install it. While that was happening I found that my laptop's battery had died and it also no longer was working. Well, unless it was plugged in. So some limited computer time meant that I had some time for... Painting.

I am feeling quite good. I have finished 12 models since my last post.

The Eldar warlock is now done, and I am very pleased with how it turned out.

I also completed the Hurley tactical drone from my Sedition Wars set.

And also another 10 Night Goblins are now finished. This is the first 10 in the next unit of 100 that I have to paint.

So all in all a pretty successful time.

And it also brings me up to 50 models completed so far this year.

Next up I will see about starting on the next couple of warlocks that I have. Then more Night goblins. Then more Sedition Wars figs. And then... Well, best not to get too far aheard of myself in planning.

Well, back to it I guess. I should keep painting hard while I am in a painting mood.

Cheers.

Some more of the Sed Wars, a confession and where too from here...

Hi there.

Well, I got back into the painting and finally finished the next 4 models for Sedition Wars.

 

So that is 8 down, far, far too many to go. But that is part of the fun with painting. Always more to do. Oh, the terror of the more still to do.

 

So I realised also that I had not updated my painting count previously. So it currently stands at:

Painted mightily this year: 36. Not too shabby an effort.

Purchased so far this year... That is now another story...

See as you know I was trying to only purchase a miniature for each one that I painted, so as to not grow my back log of miniatures any further than the vast mountains that it already contains. Unfortunately, you also might remember, I am rather fond of Kickstarter. And am very weak willed against the shiny new stuff. This is as I do know, a very bad combination.

So far this year, there was a Robotech kickstarter, which I was quite restrained with, only purchasing sufficient to balance the sides up, but still ended up with around 160ish models I believe from that pending, and also the Mantic Deadzone kickstarter, which seems to be a sort of Necromunda style game, but potentially using larger forces. I will have to wait on the rules for that one. So with restraint I also managed to limit myself on that one, but still will probably end up with about 100+ models from that one.

Oh, there was also the East Asian Villiage kickstarter, which had some awesome lasercut pre-painted scenery, but also included minatures with some of the buildings. So I think there is another 30ish models coming with that one.

So for 36 painted so far, and 300ish purchased I don't think that I am going to be able to bring this back. I am still going to keep a track, but I am guessing by the end of the year the number is going to be in the negative. Quite largely in the negative.

Anyway. I am going to continue with my Sedition Wars painting, and next up is the floating weapons platform. Then another 4 models and I will have painted the bonus vanguard extras from one of my sets.

But I am being tempted by trying to paint a new 40k force for Arcanacon next year. So far I have three ideas...

A 5th company force of Ultramarines, I already have the models for quite a large force as I can use the unassembled ones that if I am honest will never go onto my Howling Griffins. But they may... Argh, the choices. I am wanting to paint them in a more metallic look than the standard. If I go on with them, I will modify my painting slightly from the test model. Start with a mid silver base, highlight up to a light silver and then apply the blue washes over the whole thing. That should a better look than this one which has a flat light silver then the washes, but was a good test of concept.

Or an Eldar force. This is an in progress test model for a Biel Tan force. Yes, I again fall in for another force that would require a lot of white in it. Sigh.

Or getting my Imp Guard from the Lerothian 12th into a stand alone force. They were from a previous use as allies for my Sisters of Battle army and it is probably time that they get their own full force organisation chart. I currently have a full infantry platoon painted (55 strong) and an armoured fist squad and Leman Russ. So it has some progress already done. I might post up photos of it at later date.

So at this time, I am not sure which one to decide on. 2 involve starting new armies fron scratch, at least from the painting side. The benefit of them is that I have access to almost all of the miniatures that I would need for the first two. Strangely the third one is the one that would require the most purchases, however still not a great many as I have most of the other items that I would need in that force still.

Or then again there are always my Tyranids...

The distractions call...

Sigh...

Cheers.

Never bring a tank to a Titan fight

Well, after the success of games the day before we assembled for the Apocalypse game.

This was a lot of fun. Thanks to the supplier of the mighty Titans. We had many of these machines walking the battlefield. Also thanks to the supplier of the excellent table that we played on. 12 Feet by 6 feet of carnage, with 11,500 points fully painted per side. It looked quite impressive.

Well, enough of my talking, on with the Pictures!

 The mighty Warlord Titan that was deployed for the Glory of Chaos!

 

 The Chaos Deployment

 More of the Chaos Deployment zone

 The view from the Imperial lines

 The  Imperials had a Tank or two deployed

 But they also had some Yellow marines and Eldar 

 The chaos Warlord decided to mock the Imperials before the game began

 The majestic Chaos force prior to turn one

 View from the Chaos side

 Mid Chaos deployment

Hmm, maybe the mocking was a little early... I am sure that we had some tanks before the Imperials first turn

Yes, the Mighty Warlord went down. Fortunately it didn't go critical.

At the end of 4 turns, we managed to pull a draw somehow. We destroyed one of the midzone objectives by having an obliterator write obscene slogans on it, and no one wanted it after that. For the loss of the Warlord, the other side did lose their Revenant titan, their Knight and the Baneblade.

Our Warlord was slain by a cravenly placed Apocalypse template from the Reaver. While the other side nominated Lysander as their Warlord, so we didn't touch him.

I was very lucky with my rolls on the Biomancy table for my Daemon prince and he ate a Librarian, his terminator bodyguard and two full squads of Eldar jetbikes. Typhus went down and the other Nurgle Chaos Lord just after he killed the Ultramarines Chaplain and offered his unworthy head as a sacrifice was promoted to Spawndom. And a Single Plague Marine was left to contest one of the objectives amongst an imperial tank company and Imperial Fists squad.

However after the first turn of Imperial shooting (note for future games - going first is good unless it is the Golden Fez battle, because our normal opponents deploy guns close up and just try to toast you, like a brick to the side of the head) which was very (very) effective it was not looking good.

At the end of the game the objectives stood at:
Chaos Deployment - Both in the rightful claw of Chaos
No Mans Land - No one held this (Ok, so I only need to not fail one jink save. No worries. Oh, bother, nothing but ones and twos on the dice is not good for success). The other objective had been declared un-collectable due to the nature of the substance used to do the chaos mark on it.
Imperial Deployment - One held by them, one contested by Chaos
Chaos Warlord - Dead
Imperial Warlord - Not Dead

Well, I should get back to some painting now. So many half completed miniatures on my table I really should get some done.

Next post - How to completely blow your plan to only purchase a miniature for each one that you paint in two easy kickstarters...

Cheers.

Wattcon 2013

I have returned from Wattcon. Games were played. Armies were destroyed (mostly mine) and fun times were had. So all in all a very successful day. Thanks to Dave for organising the day of gaming.

For this set of games I decided to take my Howling Griffins. This is because my Thousand Sons don't really work at 1200pts with the way that I like to run them. Squads in 9's eats up a lot of points and leaves me with very few scoring units.

So for the games I decided to take my half of the 4th Battle company of the Howling Griffins. 3 Tactical squads, 1 Assault Squad and 1 Devastator Squad with a Captain.

For the first game, I played against a Tyranid force. I have trouble against tyranids as they always seem to outnumber me. Surprisingly this time I outnumbered the Tyranid force, at least at deployment.

  Tyranids after deployment

 



 Tyranids after deep striking

 



 Some days, it just does not pay to don the Power Armour

 

 

So after a few turns, the Tyranids had the objective and I was down to a very thin red and yellow line. Overall, it was a loss. But there was a high point. I managed to get first blood (take that Mycetic Spore!) and also down the Carnifex.

 

Then it was onto game 2. Against an Imperial fist army lead by Lysander. Again, I managed to get first Blood, and take 3 of the 4 wounds off Lysander, but by the end of the game the Fists held two objectives and were contesting the third.

 

 My deployment

 Fists left flank

Fists Right flank (not shown, Thunderfire Cannon just behind the photo)

 

So with another defeat out of the way I moved onto the third game.

 

 

This was against an Exorcists marine army.

 

 

 

This game gave me my only win of the set of games. I would like to claim that it was a mighty tactical victory on my part, as they fell for all of my cunning traps and excellent strategies, however that would be a lie. A great, stoking lie. His dice failed him at every turn. Like my own space marines, the Exorcists seemed to have forgotten to turn their power armour on. The leadership tests failures on both sides were amusing (less so for my opponent, as two squads walked off the table this way) and I was down to a single devastator marine and two of my squads were down to only three marines standing but when the smoke cleared and the points tallied, the Howling Griffins came away with a win at the end of the day.

 

And with scoring First Blood in all three games.

 

So lots of fun was had. I ended up coming dead last, which given that two of my games had me only gaining a single point was hardly surprising, and congratulations to the overall winner with his Blood Angel army, and also to the Chosen of Chaos with his Tau force.

 

Next post will be about the Apocalypse game held the next day.

 

Cheers.







Ok, 414 is it... But that still a lot (a lot!) of Night Goblins.

I was painting the Mangler Squig model to be model number 415 in the army. And I really, really hated it. I was not enjoying painting it, I was doing quite a poor job, and was quite miserable while doing so.

I started to think what I was painting all these Night goblins for. I don't really play Warhammer Fantasy. So why spend time painting models that I hate?

When that came to me, I decided to stop painting the Mangler Squig. Although I own two of them, I cannot ever see myself finishing the one that I have started, or painting the second one at all. Yes, they have good on table stats, but...

So I present to you my 61% completed Night Goblin horde. No, everything below is fully painted. I still have 39% of the army either assembled and not started or still on sprue waiting to be started.

And some photos of the Boss group of the army. Skarsnick and 2 Big Bosses. And 5 Shaman.

So what does this actually contain?

100 Night Goblin Spears
2 x 50 Night Goblin Spears
50 Night Goblins Hand Weapons
5 x 20 Night Goblin Archers
10 Squig Hoppers
25 Squig Herders (15 Squigs, 10 Herders)
6 Stone Trolls
14 Night Goblin fanatics
Skarsnick
2 Big Bosses
1 Squig Hopper Big Boss
5 Night Goblin Shaman

Which leaves me with 262 models to go. But maybe 268, depending on if I decide to add in another 6 Stone trolls or not to give me a horde of them. Go Horde or Go Home I guess. :)

Cheers.

414... That is a reasonably large number.

So I finished the next 8 Night Goblins and started to undercoat the next large model that will bring me to 415.

So the 8 models consisted of 3 fanatics for the orange units, 3 gobs to add to the first unit of squig herders as stand in herders, 1 night goblin to bring the blue unit up to a true 50, and my 5th shaman.

So my spreadsheet tells me that I am now over 3000 points of night goblins. Yikes. That is without magic weapons (except for those that Skarsnick comes with base) and with all Shaman counting as level one.

The next model is my first foray into the world of finecast. So far, not liking it a whole heap. The model seems very bouncy for its large nature and minimal points of contact and is not holding the paint that well even after I washed it. I will continue on though and see how it all looks when it is done.

I have also assembled these, which is the start of my Empire of the Dead group. A gaslight Victoriana era game? So what did I choose? A whole bunch of women with swords and pole-arms.

Yikes the Studio McVey figures which are the resin ones in the above pic are very finely cast.

Until next time.